Ericsson today announced it was chosen as the five-year business partner for the development of Telstra's end-to-end service delivery solution. The contract allows Telstra to leverage its entire media, broadband and telecoms portfolio to deliver content, applications and services over its 2.5G and 3G networks. This agreement reaffirms Ericsson's strong telecom services position in the Australian market.

Under the agreement, the first of its kind in Australia, Ericsson will provide advanced consulting services to support Telstra in defining customer service streams and creating targeted offerings to capture new data revenues. Ericsson also provides system integration of the Ericsson Service Delivery Platform (ESDP), integrating it into Telstra's environment and support services for post launch operations.

Telstra's Director of Wireless and Mobility Products, Holly Kramer said: "Telstra has a close relationship with Ericsson, which is providing both our service delivery solution and is partnering with us for 3G. Ericsson understands our business drivers, they understand our customers in the Australian market, and they can help bring learnings from other operators across the world."

Ericsson will provide global expertise and best practices, access to partnerships and research combined with a skilled local team for lifecycle management, including managing performance, operations and evolution.

Ms. Kramer added: "Ericsson's systems integration in the service layer, including content and evolution management, provides us with innovative consumer services that will prepare us for the launch of 3G services."

This service delivery initiative focuses on what the consumer wants with an easier consumer experience - this is a strategic move to drive Telstra traffic and revenue growth in the combined media and mobile world.

Telstra will strengthen their mobile competitive position with high value services, such as music downloads, videos, news and sport. The solution offers an overall enhanced consumer experience and allows Telstra to utilize its rich portfolio of associated brands such as Sensis, BigPond and Foxtel.

The consumer services will be easy to use and work seamlessly across all terminals and networks (GSM/GPRS, CDMA and WCDMA), leveraging all of Telstra's network capabilities. The solution complies with open standards, allowing Telstra flexibility and a return on the investment for the future.

"We are delighted to integrate this comprehensive service delivery solution to assist Telstra so closely in satisfying their customers and growing their business," said Barry Borzillo, Managing Director for Ericsson Australia and New Zealand. "Ericsson is committed to working in partnership with Telstra, growing the market, driving revenue and leveraging 3G as the foundation for convergence."

As part of the deal, Ericsson provides and integrates products from its global partnerships with best in class providers BEA Systems Inc and MobileAware and local partnership with EMC / Documentum.

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world.

The service layer is the market place where new, enriched services - both communication and media, for both consumers and enterprises - are created, delivered and managed. The Ericsson service layer offering comprises of business consulting, systems integration and managed services (including hosting) in the solution areas of user & service management, charging and application support. Ericsson is a world-leading solution provider in the service layer with broad experience from designing, integrating and managing carrier-class service layer solutions to more than 350 operators in 110 countries.

Ericsson's systems integration expertise covers end-to-end integration of consumer services as well as design and integration of multi-vendor solutions in the service layer and telecom management domains. Ericsson Service Delivery Platform consists of components and Ericsson's standards-based framework (including 3GPP and Parlay). It includes a service creation environment, common support functions and common application enablers.

About Telstra Corporation Limited

Telstra is Australia's leading telecommunications carrier and a world-class fully integrated, full service provider across wireline, ADSL, HFC, satellite and digital wireless networks and platforms. Telstra has more than 10 million household, business and wholesale customers. Telstra's BigPond(TM) is Australia's leading ISP. Telstra has the most highly accessed family of internet portals and sites and provides entertainment and multimedia content over its broadband network and through its Pay-TV joint venture, FOXTEL. Telstra owns and operates one of the most technologically advanced networks, offering end-to-end solutions ranging from broadband, IP, mobile and intelligent network services, to voice and data network hubs, call centres, and advanced multimedia and e-commerce applications. It has business operations in the Asia-Pacific region, North America, the UK and Europe.